


Placebo Feelings

by L4sht0n



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - This World Inverted (Shadowhunters TV), And Oblivious Jisung, Boys Kissing, Crime Solving, Fallen Angel Minho, Felix has a crosssbow, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Hunter Felix, I don't know how to describe it, Idiots in Love, Inspired by Shadowhunters (TV), M/M, Morally Grey Minho, Mutual Pining, Organized Crime, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, This AU is made up of Shadowhunters Supernatural a dash Harry Potter and whatever I want ig, Top Changbin because have you seen Felix aka ray of sunshine, Until it's not so subtle, characters will be added as they come, demon changbin, it deserves its own tag, it's very intense, pining minho, set in New York City
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28323996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L4sht0n/pseuds/L4sht0n
Summary: Felix hated the entire climbing-up-the-ladder game. it wasn't fun, nor necessary. Just because hehappenedto have a screw-up, didn't mean that the ministry should punish him so harshly. Felix was more than capable than owning up his mistakes, and he shouldn't be doing this low-ranked missions. His talents were wasted. Then he stumbles upon various murders, and a demon with an annoying smirk, and it's just a hellhole after that.
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Lee Felix/Seo Changbin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	1. The Crime Scene

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas everyone! This is a Christmas gift for my younger sister who's a fan of Stray Kids and Changlic, I'm not a fan on them myself, so I don't know much about them. However, I hope you like my story nonetheless. Song title is from Mirrors by PVRIS

The city lights flickered, and for a second it almost seemed like the air grew colder. The lights seemed almost neon-like from a far, but Felix knew that wasn’t reality. The lights blended into an awful mixture of too much colour, and too little detail. Added together with the waste of electricity. The sound followed the pattern, there too many sounds and came out as a dull background sound. Cars were driving and honking at each other, several clubs were ruining their speakers and annoying neighbours at the same time. If Felix paid attention, he could make out the sound of humans too, shouting, talking, singing and whatnot. Occasionally a plane or helicopter would blend into the mix of dull background noise.

Nights in New York were usually like this, bland and too much all the same time. Felix would hardly call the city boring; it was a reason it was the city that never slept. It never slept. Around him, there were different actions and scenery happening, and Felix could’ve joined several if he wanted to. However, Felix had no interest in mere human activities. Restaurants, movie theatre and clubs never interested him. The shader sides of town were even worse, strip clubs, fight scenes and robberies were all a part of the normal mundane daily life, and Felix couldn’t find it in him to even be remotely interested. This night seemed just like any other night, he thought to himself for a second. The sword on his back now seemed a bit over-dramatic. The tattoos on his hands seemed like an unnecessary detail, they would fade; unlike human tattoos, and shared another purpose. Maybe it was time to retreat? Another night wasted on the mundane boring night patrol. Felix would be sure to tell Jisung that there was no use in sending him out on these patrols. Unless the true motive was to waste resources and time.

His black clothes blended perfectly into the night’s darkness, and Felix could hardly contain a smile. At least his clothes had been the right choice, even if the accessories had proved unnecessary so far. He was about to get up from the roof top but stopped all movements momentarily. His brown eyes fixated at the horizon again. He had felt something.

It was just a small tingle, and Felix couldn’t precisely tell what it was. It was too far and didn’t send strong enough signals for Felix to pick it up, but he was sure it was something. The energy he felt was negative. For a while remained completely motionless, his breath stilled. Whoever was sending out energy couldn’t pick up Felix’ energy if he stayed mostly silent; the runes would help. His brown eyes searched the city to see if he could pick up on the energy or if it was gone as soon as it appeared. If it did disappear Felix would brush it out as a human with strong emotions; that happened at this, but the energy from humans never remained. This energy remained; whatever it was, wasn’t human. And the signals it sent were negative, Felix had to inspect it. It was his duty of not to humans, then at least to society and other magical creatures. 

If Felix was being honest, he wasn’t all that far from a human being himself. He looked like them, talked, walked, breathed, ate, and slept like them. Nothing would or could differ him from the average human being asides a tad bit of magical powers, an old bloodline and demon hunting as a hobby. Actually, the hobby was turning into work. Felix enjoyed solitude, peaceful walks and watching the pulsing city. But creeping from a rooftop for hours wasn’t exactly something Felix would connect to ‘fun’ or ‘entertaining’. Work he wasn’t even paid for. Sure, he’d probably be recognized within the magical society if he ever did something of an honour, like slaying a demon, or better yet a demon nest. Night patrols, on the other hand, was dirty work. Nothing short of necessities, no one would ever thank you for that or even give you a second glance. Just like the humans that worked in retail or cleaning.

He jumped off the roof and for a slight moment, Felix was flying in the air. The cold night breeze caressing his pale skin ever so slightly. The black hood he’d wore fell off as he landed on the neighbouring roof and revealed his blond hair. Felix was quick to fix it before he moved closer to the negative energy. He could spot glimpses of red, and he shuddered slightly. The air was getting colder, it was hardly a good sign. On the contrary, it was a bad omen, but Felix couldn’t start to lose hope now. All he could do has he jumped from rooftop to rooftop was hope he was wrong. As he inched closer the red aura grew sharper, it was dull and weak, like mist maybe, but it was unmistakeable now. Before, Felix could’ve brushed it off as New York lights, but it would be impossible now. It was definitely the energy of something magical. Felix couldn’t say what, but a hunch said demon.

Maybe the sword wasn’t a waste of space as Felix had originally thought? Though he would’ve preferred it if it was. Using the sword never meant good, an unused sword was a good omen. The brown eyes settled on the street below him. The street was silent. Too silent. The red mist was practically seeping from the street, yet Felix could even find something even slightly misplaced. It all looked so normal it would’ve fooled Felix otherwise. He looked at his hand, the tattoos – the runes – were fading. Fuck, he’d used too much energy on the roof-jumping it seemed. With a flick of the blue crystal pen, he drew another rune, slightly above the fading runes. It was closer to heart anyways. The mark burned for a little while, but by now Felix had gotten used to the sensation.

He could vividly remember drawing his first mark with the crystal pen, he might have cried some few tears. Felix blamed that on the fact that he was thirteen, and so scared of getting the rune wrong so it had zero effect and had therefor painstakingly taken his time. It hadn’t been worth it, in the aftermath, but the rune had done its job. The good and the bad cancelled each other out. The new rune gave him a prolonged vision, and he could see and feel the street better now. Noticed details humans wouldn’t have otherwise unless they were meters and centimetres away. A man was lying on the ground, the energy of a magical creature lingered, but whatever it was, was gone now.

Even if Felix was sure the creature that had sent out the energy was gone, he could help but search the streets before he decided to go down to ground level. The creature, as expected, was gone. For what Felix knew it could’ve opened a portal and gone to another dimension. At the very least, it was gone – miles away from this scene. The man on the ground wasn’t moving, and Felix feared the worst. With a quick motion, he jumped off the roof and landed on the black concrete. The landing was a bit off, but the runes and his black boots helped a bit. The pain in his feet spread through his body as he got up and walked, but he’d shake it off eventually. His blond hair slightly got in his eyes as he walked towards the man on the ground, but he quickly pushed it away.

The man on the ground was dressed completely in white. Shadowhunters, like Felix, never wore white unless it was for a funeral. Black, as Felix was wearing now, was worn when they fought and were out on a mission. Black signalised fighting, humans would wear black to a funeral, but shadowhunters couldn’t connect the colour black to grieving. White was the colour of grieving. The man on the ground was no shadowhunter nor human, Felix knew that easily.

Just as easily as he knew that the man was dead. Felix didn’t need to check for a pulse, but he leaned down to the body, nonetheless. The body wasn’t bloody, in a strange way it was almost to clean. One could suspect the man was sleeping if it wasn’t for the still chest and the two large holes that were on the underside of his wrists. The holes were huge, but at the same time, they were neat, clean, with no blood. If Felix had measured the holes, he’d bet they be a perfect circle. The circles were weird, and they looked burnt, but could hardly be the death cause. If anything, Felix would estimate they were made post-moterm. 

The dead man was a magical creature, but Felix couldn’t tell what. Which he found strange; the man wasn’t giving off any energy. Obviously, after death, magical creatures stopped giving off energy, but so close to death there was bound to be some energy left. A trace. There was nothing. Not even a glimmer. Felix found this very strange, but he didn’t know why this may be. Maybe he had been dead longer than Felix suspected. A quick hand to the man’s neck disproved this though, he was still warm. The man had hardly been dead for 20 minutes. Whatever it was, it had something to the holes in the man’s wrists.

It seemed like didn’t have use for the sword, after all, that didn’t lighten Felix’ mood though. A man, or well something, was still dead. He wasn’t quite a man, but not necessarily a magical creature either. Felix couldn’t put his finger on it exactly, so he let it be for now. He looked once more at the white-dressed before he walked away.

Felix left the crime scene to report the body.


	2. The Visit

“Unbelievable!” Jisung exclaimed, and Felix winced softly. He hated seeing the other male angry. Or anyone angry for that matter. He was back in headquarters now, and all he wanted to do was go to bed. The clock was ticking closer to three, and the night patrol was taking its toll on his body. “You saw strong red energy, and you didn’t even _think_ to call for back-up?”

“I reported the body, didn’t I? And I’m very much alive, there wasn’t even anyone there. I’m totally unharmed,” Felix tried to explain. He even made a point by waving his arms as if that would show how he didn’t even have a scratch. Truth was, besides the actual body there wasn’t any excitement about his night patrol, and a dead person was hardly any excitement.

“Yes, but what if you weren’t alone, huh? What if you stumbled into a nasty demon or-…” Jisung tried to mother-hen him, and Felix grew tired of it, so he interrupted him.

“But I didn’t, okay? And even if I did, I would’ve dealt with it.” Felix just wanted to go to bed. It had been a long day, and he was due for night patrol tomorrow too.

“Oh please, I’ve seen you in battle, you’re decent at best,” Felix could tell if Jisung was mocking him or if he actually was serious. He decided not to dwell on it though, it wouldn’t be the first night they’d spent on discussing sword techniques. Jisung was better with the sword, Felix knew it, but he wouldn’t call himself mediocre either.

“I wish I had a fight, then at least the shouting would be worth it,” Felix mumbled to himself, but Jisung obviously heard it.

“I know you think night patrol is a bore, but there’s not much I can do,” the brunette shrugged, and Felix had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. “That’s what happens when-…” Jisung began, but Felix was quick to interrupt him.

“- when you make a fool of yourself in front of the Minister, thanks Jisung, you don’t need to remind me. I’m perfectly capable of remembering the incident where I thought the minister was possessed. But I’ve grown since then, I’ve learnt from my mistakes, and I know how to spot a fake trail now,” he finished his monologue quite proud of himself. Felix understood of course that after that horrible mistake they wouldn’t let him get “real” missions anytime soon, but he still hated the climbing-up-the-ladder-game.

“I was gonna say ‘when you fuck up’, but when you put like that,” the brunette laughed, and Felix couldn’t hide his roll. They stayed silent for a while, Felix wanted to head to bed, but he knew Jisung had more on his chest. “Just, just be careful out there,” Jisung picked up the conversation again, “if you just stay put for a few months you’ll be back where you were before you know it. You know we need people like you, and we can’t spare to have you on night patrol forever. They’re just trying to teach you a lesson.”

The blond male shrugged slightly, “I’ll try to be careful,” he replied in the end. Not that there was much dangerous on the streets. Felix couldn’t exactly put himself in danger on the streets. Sure, New York could be dangerous, but not to the likes of them. Not unless there were demons or other creatures on the loose, and if they were low-ranked hunters like Felix wouldn’t be assigned the mission.

Felix started to walk away from the library that really was more of Jisung’s office but lingered in the doorway. He wanted to say something, but nothing came to mind. “Goodnight,” he settled on in the end and walked up the stairs to the second floor. He quickly returned to his chamber and got undressed faster than he could remember before he collapsed on his bed and drifted to sleep only minutes later.

* * *

The swords clanged together each time it hit the mark, but Felix couldn’t find himself even being remotely proud of it. It wasn’t hard enough, or precise enough, or something else. Whenever he hit the mark, he could never just enjoy the proudness of being successful. No, he always had to find the mistakes in them. Maybe if he could point out every single mistake, he’d be able to fix it and be better? His current cut on the doll was barely life-threatening. He wouldn’t be able to kill with one cut. Jisung on the other hand seemed like a professional. There was just something natural about the way Jisung held himself and held a sword. Maybe it was imprinted into the genetics? 

Jisung always hit his mark, with one swing the blow would be fatal. Jisung was so good with the sword, and Felix was just decent at it. Compared to Jisung Felix was a mere amateur. Of course, Felix had his strengths too, he was far better at the crossbow than Jisng could ever dream of being. Felix prided himself with how precise he could hit his mark with arrows. He could be deadly, but sometimes the bow could unsatisfying. It wasn’t good for close combat, a sword was better for close combat, and demons only did close combat. The only way Felix could’ve shot demons were if he snuck up on them, and that hardly would work on the strongest of demons. They’d sense him before he’d send the first arrow flying, and if he’d managed to send it, they’d catch it before he’d hit the mark. They were simply too strong, normal blades wouldn’t work on them either. It had to be engraved in runes. At least Felix did better runes than Jisung. However, the blond doubted it had anything to do with talent and more with patience. 

Jisung wanted the result right this instant. Felix could wait for them. Felix usually did the runes on both of them, he had more experience with them than Jisung either way. And had more knowledge of them. Once again, it had to do with patience, Felix didn’t mind spending hours in the library reading up on runes just to find one that would fit his cause. Jisung was never one for that, he expected the perfect rune to appear the second he opened a book on a random page. Plus, Felix had managed to stay more still than Jisung’s. 

“Felix!” Jisung exclaimed and Felix turned towards the brunet. He had zoned put, and been staring at the ragdoll for minutes, analysing the small damage he’d done.

“Yeah?” The brunet smirked at him, and Felix felt confused, even if it was just for a small second. Why would Jisung smirk at him like that, it couldn’t warrant anything good. 

“The ministry wishes to speak with you,” the smirk on the brunet’s face didn’t disappear, and Felix could stomach turn. _This wasn’t good._ Hopefully, whatever it was would disappear with a few words, but it usually never happened that way. Felix should know, last time he was in this situation he was kicked down from his position right to the bottom, and still hadn’t been able to regain his previous position. 

“Just …” Jisung paused for a brief second, “just follow me,” Jisung settled on, and Felix couldn’t do anything but obey. Jisung wasn’t actually his superior, but at the same time, he was? It was a hard dynamic to explain. He acted as his brother, father and best friend all at once. Felix was sweaty as he tossed the sword away, and followed the brunet, they didn’t get far before they met a dark-skinned man. He was wearing a black suit, his shirt and tie also black. He looked dark, almost scary, but Felix had come to know the ministry too well. Likes like _them_ , Jisung and Felix, was just low lives in the magical society. They were mere dust in the wind, in a great storm. Nothing. They did the dirty work and shouldn’t _need_ to meet the ministry unless they acted out of line. What could Felix have possibly wrong now?

“Mister Lee,” said the man, he nodded slightly at him, but the movement was so small, Felix barely noticed it. For a brief second, he wondered if he had imagined it. “A pleasure,” he continued. Felix had never seen him before, he would know. The faces of the ministry people that took away his position was burnt to his mind, he doubted he’d ever forget it.

“I’d like to continue to his conversation under _four_ eyes,” he said, and gave Jisung a pointed look. Jisung was quick to take the hint and disappeared almost like smoke. Without a trace, all though a faint presence lingered. 

“You reported a body last night, correct?” he asked, but it wasn’t question-like. It seemed more like a statement. Felix nodded in confirmation. “What can you tell me about the circumstances?” 

“Why would this interest the ministry?” Felix voiced his thoughts aloud.

“’S just business as usual,” he tried to brush it off, “we’re just want to close the case before the mortal police force gets involved.” The way he explained it made it seem like it was just a regular case, nothing of importance, but Felix knew better. Knew better than to believe such lies. The ministry wouldn’t get involved and track him up unless it was important.

He narrowed his eyes, “alright,” Felix answered as if he believed the man, he didn’t. “What do you need to know?” It was better to cooperate, maybe they’d see his willingness as a good sign, and he’d climbed up the ladder faster?

In the end, Felix wasn’t able to tell him anything of use. Felix could tell because the man left shortly, and rather quickly. The aura around him screamed of disappointment and dissatisfaction. Felix was just glad he was gone.


	3. A mist of red

Another night, another night patrol. Nothing happened, and it rivalled to yesterday’s patrol in how boresome it was, that is before the dead body. However, the previous night hadn’t been remotely interesting, the only interesting thing had been the dead man in the white suit. However, there had been no demon-sighting, no fight, not even a slight silhouette or a small hint of powers being used. There had been nothing. Of course, Felix wasn’t glad that someone had died, overall, it would’ve been better if nothing happened all. However, a dead body didn’t count for interesting. It was out of the ordinary, but not enough to send thrills down his spine. A dead man didn’t get his blood pumping or send adrenaline around his body. 

A corpse was and stayed dead, and even if the circumstances around his death, and the ministry showing up, was particular. It still didn’t count as interesting. Hunting was interesting. The chase, the mystery, fighting and the practice was _interesting_. The theoretical, the paperwork, reporting back to the ministry, standing in line, until you got your orders, obeying and never doing more than _exactly_ what you were asked was _boring_. Night patrols like these were boring.

New York was resting bellow him. Or as much as it could, it was after all New York. The city never slept, there was always something going on. The night was just another scenery, calling for another kind of people. The night seemed to cover the dirty sins of mortals. Or at least they seemed to think that they could camouflage in the dark. They couldn’t. The likes of Felix and stronger creatures than him could see past the façade. The night was also mostly for magical creatures. Demons seemed to prefer the night, not because of the lack of people; they couldn’t care less. Felix theorized that they were drawn to the dark, because of the dark in their heart. Maybe, the dark reminded them of the dark pits of hell? Felix didn’t know, and he’d never been close enough to ask.

If he ever was close enough, he’d be far busier with killing them than anything. That was after all his job as a shadowhunter, to kill demons. It ranged in other shadow creatures; creatures that preferred the dark, both night and evil. However, demons were the largest species, and also the one who caused the most harm. Every once and again a vampire would rampage and lose all control, but most stuck to their covens and casual eating. Those who didn’t face death. Sometimes a siren would devour an entire ship, but those times were rare and there were others to handle that sort of thing. Sirens were usually too smart to lose their cool and kept to the dark depths of the sea. Most fed of fish, and drowning humans.

Most werewolves tried not to live in larger cities or suburban areas. Their monthly shifting made it inconvenient, especially since new-born wolves tended to lose control. Instead, most lived in packs. Felix had heard from a shadowhunter from Iowa that there was a lot of werewolf packs in the north, they seemed to prefer the climate, the woods, and the small population. That didn’t go to say that New York was completely without werewolves, they were present, but on a much smaller scale than Felix had thought originally. 

Once, Felix was forced to kill an out-of-place Scandinavian Neck, a water spirit, that had bewildered itself across the Atlantic Ocean. Felix didn’t know how it had managed the travel, but he guessed someone had captured and was hoping for a nice price. The capturer had either lost it, gotten rid of it as he realised, he wouldn’t get a good price for it or someone had released it. Didn’t matter much to Felix, all that mattered was that there was a Neck in the Central park that lured children out in a small lake in different forms. The Scandinavian’s Neck most used forms were the man playing the violin or the water horse. He even got someone before Felix stepped in, but the death of the human was, luckily, passed as a drunken accident. 

There were different shadow creatures, some more vicious than others. Werewolves and vampires, although they originated from demons, were some of the more intelligent creatures and conversable. They understood the concept of “if you mind your business, we mind our business.” Sirens were smart too, but they spent so much time deep under the water that they weren’t fond of talking. They were more fond hissing and gurgling sounds unless they tried to bait you, of course.

 _Demons_ , on the other hand, really lived up to their name. Creatures of hell and they truly were. Demons were the largest species and had every version of a creature that could exist. They had the dumbest of them all, but also the smartest ones. Some were powerful and smart and could easily blend in with humans. Yet, they always chose havoc. They were creatures of chaos, and rightfully so. Their life seemed to be consisting of making chaos in the magical society. One could reason with a demon, but they chose to ignore reason and gave into their urges instead. Sure, some rampaged, but most just did it for the hell of it. They did it because it was fun. It was difficult to find logic in their actions because often there was nothing logical about their actions. And they enjoyed it. They enjoyed creating a mess for shadowhunters. 

Demons were the worst.

That’s why Felix suspected that there was a demon behind the murder last night. He had seen no bite marks. When a vampire went nuts, it was usually to feed, a werewolf did it most of the same reasons. Although most werewolves didn’t eat humans and looked down on it, they were carnivorous. A tortured werewolf, being denied food, could grow just desperate enough. The murder last night didn’t even hold the meaning of food. It was pointless, it had to be a demon. Felix couldn’t think of another creature that was capable of that, except for demons. A powerful one, maybe, but still a demon.

This night patrol was turning into something that could remind of the previous night. His brown eyes scanned the horizon but spotted no energy. Not even a hint of red mist. The night was silent and boring. Again, that would be the ideal of the night, but Felix still wished something would happen. He hadn’t been this low ranked since he began. There was a reason untrained shadowhunters was placed on night patrol because nothing ever happened. This particular night was dark and cold, but Felix could barely spare it a thought. His trained eyes overlooked the city once more and still spotted nothing. For a second, Felix considered calling quits early, but he couldn’t afford fucking up twice, resentful he was forced to cast the thought away. It seemed like the only difference, except for a dead person, was his choice of weapon. Yesterday had been a sword, today was the crossbow. 

Felix didn’t know why he’d brought it. Obviously, he was more confident in his archery skills than his swordsmanship, but why would he bring it? If he brought the crossbow it meant he was expecting to fight, but this night was turning equally boring as the night before. Even Jisung had commented it when he had taken his bow. He had arched an eyebrow, and Felix had shot him a confusing look as if he didn’t know what it meant.

“What the man from the ministry say,” Jisung had begun, “for you to require that.” Felix had stayed silent for a while before he shook his head.

“Nothing. He said nothing.” And with that, he had left Jisung to leave for his mandatory night patrols. God, if only the ministry would pardon him, and grant him more interesting tasks. Felix would never complain about filing paperwork after missions as long as he never had to do a night patrol for the rest of his life.

His brown eyes scanned the roof, but there was no use, he was to high up for any prying eyes to see, and he doubted there would be mortals out on this roof this late. The roof was the perfect hide-out, completely devoured in darkness working as good camouflage, making his surroundings clearer. His black clothing blended perfectly into his surroundings, thus serving their destined purpose. His left slid down his left side and found the weapon he was looking for a grappling hook gun. Steadily, Felix aimed at the neighbouring building across the street and tried to find an edge where the hook would hold. The darkness proved that to be a difficult task, but the runes made up for it. Felix made his shot, and the hook fired through the air quickly, his aim was perfect. Years of practising archery made that possible. At least, his archery skills were transferable to other areas. 

For a second, he stood completely still watching the busy street underneath him, and how long his fall would be if he were to do a mistake. The humans on the street wouldn’t notice hi, they rarely looked up to watch the view over them. Even if they did, they wouldn’t notice Felix flying in the air, the runes’ spell wouldn’t make him invisible, but they would make a good enough cover. They wouldn’t see a blond teenager dressed in black swinging from building to building like an off-brand Spiderman. They’d see a large bird, or a guy cleaning windows when he got close enough to the building. Something they could pass off as normal. Without hesitation, Felix took a leap of faith and jumped from the building, with a death grip around the gun. The blond wasn’t afraid of the wire snapping, he was more afraid of losing his grip on the gun. 

The cool wind was even colder as Felix flew in the air, and he could feel a slight smirk work itself onto his face. The black hood that had covered his face was blown away by the strong wind, but Felix hardly registered. He was more focused on the thrill of flying, the beautiful view beneath his feet and the adrenaline that was pumping around in his veins. _This_ , Felix decided, was how he was supposed to live. He was supposed to live on the edge with constant adrenaline flowing evenly through his body. Paperwork, night patrols and waiting for orders to obey was a waste of Felix’s talents. _This_ , free, on the hunt, the thrill of the hunt, _this_ was the life Felix was supposed to lead.

He hit the concrete building with too much force, but it didn’t damage the building, and would only leave Felix with a couple of bruises. Nothing to worry about. With great force Felix was able to steady himself and started to walk alongside the building, he was just a few storages below the roof, but it took a few minutes before he reached the top. His brow eyes perked above the edge to check the surroundings before he emerged from his cover. It was completely empty, just like Felix had expected. This building was taller than his previous, and Felix had a better view of the city. Momentarily, he enjoyed the view before something piqued his interest. 

A mist of red.

For a brief second, Felix wondered if he was hallucinating. Twice in a row? It couldn’t be, but with the closer inspection, he was sure. That was red, magical energy. It couldn’t be anything else. Felix was sure of it. Jisung would kill him if he didn’t call for back-up, but Felix couldn’t care. Hopefully, the thing, a demon possibly, would kill him before Jisung did, if worse came to worst. Before Felix registered it, he was in the air again, slowly but surely getting closer to the mist. The mist was growing stronger. The grappling hook gun made a faster way of transportation than jumping from rooftops to rooftops, maybe he could catch the demon in the act this time.  


Felix had no way of knowing it _actually_ was a demon, but he would put money on it. Who else could it be? Felix had no knowledge of other creatures that were so sadistic that they’d kill for fun. Now, Felix couldn’t even know that today’s incident was related to yesterday’s event – but he had a gut feeling. Twice in a row, in the same neighbourhood? What else could there be?

However, Felix hoped he was proven to wrong, if he was right that meant someone was dead, or being hurt. If Felix came quickly enough, he could prevent the murder, but then he’d be left with fighting a demon. He wouldn’t mind fighting one of those vicious creatures, but not because someone was being hurt. He hoped that mist of red was something else. A brawl between two power-hungry demons, maybe? However, the blond knew that was wishful thinking. It was unlikely, and Felix had to brace himself for that.

The sound of the wind was mere background noise. The entire scenery, although beautiful, was blurred and Felix couldn’t concentrate on it. Could barely spare a second to glimpse at it, there were people’s lives at stake. The beautiful night would have to wait. Felix’s feet clacked against the concrete floor of a New York skyscraper roof. The red mist was surrounding the building, this was the spot. For a moment he was so focused on the mist and perplexed by it that he didn’t even _notice._

Felix felt it more than he could see it. He was dead too. 

One step, two, three. Felix was running towards the dead man before he stopped dead in his tracks. He could recognize the man. _Alcaraz._ he was a powered man, but he wasn’t known for his magical powers, although Felix had always found his fire breath amazing. Alcaraz had an infamous club for magical creatures, everyone was welcome, there was only one rule to obey. _No fighting._ Demons and shadowhunters could share a drink, not that most people did, as longs as they didn’t find. People frequented the place because it was a safe place. There were cast heavily spells to conceal and protect the place, it was one of the few safe zones. And now Alcaraz was dead. Who would kill him? Was the man from before just like Alcaraz? 

__

The white suit went well with the occasion. It was a sad event. 

__

The magical society just lost one of their allies, for what? 

__

Alcaraz’ white hair seemed slightly burnt, and Felix could smell the faint smell of smoke and burnt flesh. With closer inspection it revealed that Alcaraz had several wounds, none of them was lethal. The lethal one was the large hole in his throat, it was so deep that could see through the wound to the concrete underneath. It only confirmed Felix suspicion’s, this murder was related to the previous one from yesterday. Although the man from yesterday had, had two holes in his wrists, Felix doubted there would be to separate murders. 

__

He heard it before he noticed. Even with the runes that were supposed to make him hyperaware, Felix didn’t pick up on it, and he cursed to himself. He heard dark and alluring laughter. Luckily, the shock wore off immediately, and his reflexes kicked in. His crossbow was loaded within milliseconds as Felix faced a dark silhouette. It seemed broader than himself, and stronger too. It was harder to pick up the height because the silhouette was leaning against the concrete wall – but he seemed to be around the same height as Felix. Aside from that his face and cloth were camouflaged by the darkness. What Felix did pick up was his energy, _demon._

__

The arrow went flying before towards the creature before Felix noticed. He uttered words he couldn’t remember to have thought out, and his own voice seemed like a stranger’s voice. 

__

“Demon, tonight you die!” Felix had screamed. His arrow was flying towards the demon, and right before it hit his heart, the demon caught it and snapped it with one hand. As if it wasn’t made out of steel or covered in runes that would normally burn a demon. _Fuck_ , he had to be a strong one. Maybe that was the reason Felix hadn’t sensed him sneaking upon him. 

__

“Oh honey,” the demon uttered with a deep, raspy voice as he left the darkness of the wall and stepped into lightning where Felix could see him. He was beautiful, but that was kind of their thing. They were supposed to look beautiful so mortals would trust them, so they could allure fools into their grasp and use them to whatever they wanted. “Don’t kill the messenger,” he continued, and the serious expression morphed into a smirk as he locked eyes with Felix. 

__

Felix was firing up a new arrow as the demon spoke again. “After all, don’t you wanna know who did this?” 

__


	4. Genesis

Felix didn’t let the arrow fly just yet, but he wouldn’t hesitate to send it flying either. The demon smirked as he saw Felix’ reaction, and it annoyed Felix to death. However, he let the frustration pass just so he could hear the demon out. There was really no pint of hearing the demon out, they all spoke bullshit most days – but sometimes they spoke fragments of truth; even if those moments were rare. Certain demons liked to watch the world burn, but some liked to play games for fun. Too tired of creating hell on earth and liked to watch shadowhunters or other creature go mad from the playful, but deadly games.

“What do you mean by ‘who did it’, you did it,” Felix answered with such confidence that most people wouldn’t dare correct him even if he was wrong. He could feel his own muscles tense, as he made his aim more secure.

“Oh, foolish human,” the demon laughed, it sounded mocking, but Felix couldn’t feel insulted. That’s what demons did, they were cruel and mocking. It would surely be worse if the demon had been nice to him. The demon licked his lips as he watched Felix, “but you’re not human, are you?” He raised an eyebrow to him, and Felix scoffed.

“Of course, but you know about shadowhunters, don’t you?” Felix asked, ending the sentence like a question just like the demon did. “You’re too powerful to not know about us,” Felix smirked, but the arrow never wavered from its target. Felix could see the demon’s smirk grow a little as if he’d been expecting – hoping for – that answer. It dawned upon Felix seconds later that it had been a test, a test to check Felix’ abilities. Night patrol was reserved for those of low-rank, and he wanted to check if Felix had talent or not – apparently, the blond didn’t disappoint. Not that Felix cared if he failed or didn’t fail the test.

“Look,” Felix already cringing over how polite he was about to sound. Usually, Felix wasn’t one for manners right before he killed a shadow creature, what good did he owe them? “I don’t have the time for chit-chat when you’ve killed two members of the magical society, I have no other choice but to terminate you.”

“Pretty boy, didn’t I just tell you that I haven’t killed this,” he gestured towards Alcaraz, “man and that other guy?” His lips curled up in a wolfish grin. “You really should listen to what I say,” it seemed to tease and not annoyed, and Felix was convinced that this demon, wanted was to play some sort of twisted game. Sure, he might want to see the world burn, but some demons seemed to find it more satisfying than they could trick morally good people to light the world on fire for them. To corrupt someone _and_ burn the world, it was practically to kill two birds with one stone. Felix refused to fall for such simple games, hoping he would outsmart the demon.

“No, listen to me. And would you please lower that arrow, this certainly isn’t the way to treat those who are about to give you some _juicy_ information,” his black eyes looked at Felix, but Felix made no moves to shift his stance or lower the arrow. “Alright, suit yourself,” the demon made a show of sighing, and even though his eyes were pitch black it felt like he was rolling his eyes. “the guy who did it who did it is becoming a bit of an obstacle and I want him gone.”

“So, he’s a demon?” Felix asked, raising an eyebrow. By the way, the demon talked so casually about it, Felix knew he was right. Had it been another creature the demon would probably have referred to it as its species. 

“Well, yes, but I don’t think that really should matter, should it?” The demon countered back.

“Well, you’re a demon, shouldn’t you support your own kind?” Felix didn’t know what urged him to continue the conversation, he really should be putting an arrow in the demon, but if the demon had useful information then Felix should hear it out before he killed it. He could always kill it later.

“Honestly what did they teach you at shadowhunter school?” The way he said it Felix wondered if he was joking or not, however, demons weren’t known for being comedians either. The silence was deafening, so Felix assumed that the demon had actually meant it as a question, and not a rhetorical question.

“There’s not shadowhunter school-…” Felix began but was interrupted.

“That explains it,” he mumbled, mostly to himself before he continued in a louder voice. “We demons want like total world domination or something as lame sounding, there’s really much room for competition, is there? My point is, he’s becoming a little bit problematic, and usually, I don’t mind dirtying my hands, there’s just that it’s frowned upon that the likes of me kills the likes of this guy if you get what I mean.” Felix didn’t, not the slightest, he didn’t understand the lack of demon laws and the few who existed, but he wasn’t about to ask about it. “So, I will point you in the right direction, give you all the little hints you need, and you will pull your justice-crap, and in the end, we both win. Think of it as hiring a hitman, only that … you don’t get paid. Like Batman giving Jim Gordon some hot tea, and then Jim spills the tea,” the demon spoke in human slang. But Felix couldn’t help but cringe. It seemed like a 40-something-year-old mother who tried to keep ‘hip with the kids' but the young body and face made it seem a bit more natural. It had probably felt more natural too hadn’t the blond known that he was speaking to a creature of hell and not someone in their early twenties.

“And why should I trust you?” Felix countered, the arrow never leaving a lethal point, the blond wouldn’t hesitate to kill. Even though he doubted that the demon could be killed that easily. He seemed stronger than your average demon. He had caught Felix’ previous arrow with ease and would without a doubt do it again. The arrow was probably not a threat, but it made Felix feel better. Maybe if he engraved more runes into it, the arrow would cause some damage – but Felix didn’t exactly have the time to burn runes into an arrow. He would be attacked before he even got one rune down – Jisung would kill him if he managed to survive.

“Sweetheart, don’t you think my rhetoric was convincing enough for you?” the demon flashed his teeth, and raised his eyebrow and Felix, and Felix didn’t fight the scoff that escaped his throat.

“Hardly,” Felix replied, his arm tensed, and the arrow steadied towards the demon’s throat. “You need to be a little bit more _convincing_.” The dagger in his belt would do some damage, Felix was sure of it. It was small, and Felix wasn’t overly confident in his close combat skills, but if he could surprise the demon with an attack, he was sure the dagger could do some real damage. Forged with angel blood – demons’ natural enemy – Felix was sure that it would damage it, though he doubted it would kill it.

The demon exaggerated a sigh but didn’t seem to tense up. He didn’t seem violent, to Felix it seemed like the demon had expected it. After all, any decent hunter would just go ‘round believing the words of demons with the snap of their fingers. Their tongues were toxic, words laced with venom; they told you exactly what you wanted to hear to gain your trust. Trusting demons were dangerous; you let them get too close and they would pull you under. In a strange, sickening and psychotic way it was calming to Felix. He _always_ knew where he had a demon, and arm-length away for safety measures. The blond couldn’t trust demons and would never be stupid enough to even try. Angels, on the other hand, though rarely left their realm to visit the earth they were much less predictable. They were honest, blunt, violent, self-righteous and full of an unwavering sense of justice. They didn’t care if they did badly as long as the goal, in the end, validated their actions – in a way angels were more morally grey than good, but only because they fought blindly in the name of justice – never daring to step out of line. Felix had never met an angel, but the hoped he never would. According to legend, they were the opposite of demons. Now Felix didn’t quite know what that meant, but some claimed that were demons were beautiful and alluring; angels were horrifying and dreadful. 

“Fine,” the demon settled on after a moment of silence, “I am speaking the truth,” the demon grinned, and it sounded like he mumbled some words. Felix didn’t quite catch them, but it sounded oddly alike ‘for once’. “If my natural instinct for power and whatever domination, and desire to crush competition isn’t believable enough for you, then this should be. Think about it logically, you humans like logic, don’t you?” Felix didn’t answer the question, because he knew the question was mostly rhetorical. “How were they killed, pretty grotesque, am I right? However, it doesn’t seem completely pointless either. The hole seems like it’s the reason for the murder, doesn’t it?”

Felix’ brows knitted, in confusion, of course, he had considered it, but he didn’t quite know what the holes meant. However, he knew the demon was right they were the reason for the killings. They stood out from normal murders which could only mean they were related to the death cause. Yet, Felix couldn’t quite make sense of it, the holes were different places, different sizes; the first body had two holes one in each wrist, while Alcaraz had one in his throat. What could it mean?

“An obvious cause for the murders isn’t going to help me trust you,” Felix gritted, not revealing that he didn’t know what the holes meant. “I should just kill you now, _demon_.” Felix was only seconds from firing the arrow, but he was compelled to stop when he heard the demon’s laughter, it was dark and husky – yet it didn’t feel life-threatening.

“Didn’t think so,” the demon said, and licked his lips attentively, “maybe this will do?” He snapped his fingers, and there was a flash of red. Felix could feel a gush of cold air, and he heard the faint sound of something flapping, before the sensation of feeling falling overwhelmed him. He collided harshly against the concrete ground, and Felix opened his eyes – he hadn’t realised he’d closed them. When he studied his surroundings, he realised he was somewhere else, a completely different side of town – closer to Brooklyn – how had they moved so fast? It only confirmed that the demon, whoever he was, was a strong one.

A new red energy infiltrated Felix’ vision – something magical, Felix was sure of it, and it was negative. It felt awfully similar to the energy he’d felt the prior night. Felix eyes studied his new surroundings and saw the demons a few steps away from him. The demon could’ve made move and tried to kill Felix – yet it hadn’t. Felix’ back had been open, but he was still unharmed. The blond was unsure what that meant, but he decided not to linger on it.

“To me, it looks like someone’s being attacked over there,” the demon teased him and notched towards the source of the red energy. “Isn’t it like your job or something to prevent that?” He was taunting him, yet Felix _knew_ that the demon had brought him here to do something about it. A semi-good act, to gain Felix trust or something. A really weird move on the demon’s part, but Felix decided to dwell on that later.

“When you’ve managed to crack some codes, come find me,” the demon said, and it was gone. Felix wanted to chase it, but the demon had been smart enough to leave no possible trace. For what Felix knew the demon could be halfway around the world. Instead, he focused on the case that was in front of him. The blond would deal with the strange events later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this chapter! I'm so sorry for disappearing on y'all, but I've made a new plot, and I'm a lot more motivated to write, plus this plot is a lot better and more interesting, so I hope you guys are excited, I'm sorry for the short chapter - they will grow longer as the plot thickens and the sexual tenesion intensifies


	5. What's life without doubt, a reference to Descartes

Jisung wasn’t quite _surprised_ to find Felix awake at this ungodly hour per se, he’d come to expect Felix’ unhealthy sleeping habits a long time ago. He just wasn’t prepared for seeing Felix buried in books. Books as in actual heavy books and not just a comic book. Now, Jisung wasn’t calling Felix dumb – he wasn’t. The other male was quite sharp and _very_ observant, there was hardly anything that could escape Felix’ attention. However, Felix hardly did any studying. He mostly went by a gut feeling, and it worked for him. God knows how it worked, but Felix made it work. Maybe it was his impulsive behaviour and quick actions that made it work, but Felix just didn’t study. When the blond was in need of studying, he rarely did it himself forcing either Jisung or Chan to do it.

To Felix’ defence, he didn’t really mean to force it onto someone else, he was just hopeless and in need of help. When he wasn’t lost in Latin glosses, other dead languages or lore from the Medieval ages he often lost his attention. Falling asleep because of his unhealthy sleeping habits or because he found it too boring. Felix didn’t find it _interesting_ , it wasn’t like the blond couldn’t do it, it was just that Felix craved an adrenaline rush – and old dusty books failed to give it to him.

“Wow, this might be the eighth wonder of the world,” Jisung teased when he entered the library. Felix _could_ spend hours upon hours cramped up in books, but only if it were rune studies. Somehow, Felix’ attention could be never-ending if he looked for a rune, but if it were _anything_ else, Felix would get bored quickly. Quite the opposite of Jisung. Chan said that they fulfilled each other like that, where one might lack something the other seemed to be an expert. Like yin and yang.

“Shut up,” Felix mumbled, his eyes never leaving the page of the particular old book. Jisung recognized it, but couldn’t recall the title – however, he knew it was about demons.

“Did something happen on night patrol?” Jisung wondered, but Felix didn’t quite reply. The brunet studied the blond for a few moments until it seemed that Felix had finished reading the page.

“Hey Jisung, can demons teleport?” Felix asked, not replying to Jisung’s question. Jisung’s gaze averted a little from Felix a gesture to show he was thinking even if he already knew the answer. However, the brunet tried to muster up all prior knowledge of demons either way just so he would know he hadn’t missed anything. The answer he came up with remained the same.

“No,” Jisung answered, “no they can’t. Why are you asking? Did something happen on patrol?” Jisung asked again, and Felix remained silent. The silence was an answer in itself, but Jisung wanted Felix to tell him exactly what had happened.

“Yeah,” the blond sighed, and Jisung couldn’t tell if it was from sadness or because he was tired. “Two new bodies, the same guy from yesterday,” Felix continued, but Jisung could tell there was more. Felix and Jisung were different like that; Felix would rather keep all facts to himself until he was certain, Jisung would spin out weird and outlandish theories based on a hunch.

“Did you catch the murderer?”

“He’s a demon,” Felix answered, which settled it. The killer was still roaming free – which in retrospect should be obvious. Felix wouldn’t be sitting here four in the morning if he’d caught the killer, he would be asleep or gloating. Felix in front of old lore was the same as a lost Felix.

“He got away?” Jisung asked, his tone a bit more accusingly than he’d intended. It wasn’t like he blamed Felix for the demon fleeing, however, he trusted Felix to be capable enough to catch a demon. Felix was strong, and he seemed unharmed – so if the demon hadn’t won out in a fight with Felix, how had the demon managed to escape?

“I traced the killer to Brooklyn, and I was successful, however, the killer had struck again, but before I could even approach the murderer the demon-…”  
“Let me guess,” Jisung interrupted, “he ‘teleported’ away?” Jisung could see the connection now, however, he wasn’t quite sure it was possible. Maybe Felix’ eyes had betrayed him? Maybe the demon had made it seem like he teleported? It didn’t make sense, especially considering how observant Felix was, but it was the only logical explanation. Demons couldn’t teleport.

“No,” Felix answered, and Jisung felt a small shock. He stayed silent for less than a second before the surprise ran over. Why would Felix have asked about teleportation if it wasn’t relevant? “The demon did flee, it was like a quick black blur, I’ve never seen a demon so fast, but it didn’t teleport away.” Jisung could feel himself gape, but he pulled himself together. Something else had happened on the patrol, something Felix wasn’t telling him. Jisung was sure of it, but he couldn’t know if it was important or not. Jisung could only hope that Felix would tell him when he deemed it the right time – or that it was unimportant enough to go unnoticed. However, Jisung doubted it to be the latter – demons couldn’t teleport and if one could that would be pretty big news. Not only for them as shadowhunters, but also for the magical society. Like the department of magic big news.

Jisung was compelled to shake Felix and force it out of him, but Jisung knew it wouldn’t help – it would only result in Felix growing more stubborn. The urge was there, and it was strong, but Jisung willed it away. Instead, Jisung decided to play oblivious.

“Did you report the bodies?” he asked, something he could imagine he’d ask if it been a normal night without teleporting demons and whatnot. Jisung really had the habit of being a mother-hen towards Felix. At least, that’s what Chan claimed him to do, whilst mothering them.

“Yes of course,” Felix replied, and Jisung could see the blond rolling his eyes, “I’m not a complete idiot.” Jisung felt the conversation coming to an end, but he didn’t want to brush Felix off so soon. There was still much unsaid on Felix’ side, and although Felix would reveal little Jisung had learned that one could always pick up clues by the art of observation.

“Good,” Jisung wanted to say something about how he expected the ministry to show up sometime tomorrow morning, but he kept that to himself. He knew how much Felix hated them, and if he let Felix know beforehand Felix was likely to escape or avoid them. For this instance, it was better to catch Felix off guard. “So, whatcha reading?” Jisung already knew the answer, he probably frequented that book once a month. Chan even more than that – he could tell it was _that_ book by looking at any page.

“Just demon lore,” Felix began. Jisung had learnt that sometimes silence was better than talking he could get the answer he wanted from just staying silent. Mostly because humans felt the need to fill the silence with something. Felix was no exception. “I just feel whatever I’m up against is stronger than your average demon. If the three murders and the black blur is anything to go by. So, I want to refresh my memory. I was thinking of engraving more runes on my dagger and arrows tomorrow. Want me to do yours?” 

_That right there had to be a sign._

A sign of something, but Jisung wasn’t quite sure of what. It seemed like Felix handed him puzzle pieces to a puzzle but none that would fit together. So, Jisung was left with fragments of a picture that wasn’t even starting to clear up.

“My sword, please,” Jisung answered. Although the brunet owned plenty of swords, Felix knew exactly which one he meant. His favourite word. A small smile of thankfulness graced Jisung’s features before it disappeared. Jisung’s brown eyes searched the room and landed on the large grandfather clock, it was nearing five. A sudden tiredness possessed Jisung, and he knew the wisest thing to do was to go to sleep. “Alright,” Jisung declared to get Felix’ attention. “I’m heading to bed, and you should to, I’d hate to deal with your tired ass tomorrow.” Although he was sincere about it, his real reason was how grumpy Felix was when he was sleep-deprived, and he’d probably end up snapping at the ministry which could cause another scandal. Jisung doubted it, but Felix could be like a loose cannon, and he’d rather not take his chances.

“Good night.”

* * *

The coffee Jisung had in the morning did very little to wake him up, and although the coffee was slightly satisfactory it didn’t do its primal job. It wasn’t the coffee or the coffee mugs fault that Jisung had decided to chat with Felix until half-past four in the morning, and only slept a little over five hours – but Jisung still blamed his tired state on the coffee. He was contemplating on making a double dose to feel the effect of caffeine when a tired blond wandered into the kitchen. Felix looked worn out too, but unlike Jisung Felix actually managed to take power naps during the day. Felix was like a cat in that aspect, he could fall asleep on any surface, and wake up well-rested. 

Jisung, on the other hand, if he decided to power nap in the library woke up with back pains and somehow more tired than when he fell asleep. The brunet had quickly learned that he worked better with at least seven hours of sleep, and he should sleep them consistently. If not, Jisung would just down so much coffee he was sure his bloodstream was half-caffeine. Today seemed like a coffee day.

“I thought you wouldn’t be up yet,” Felix said, rubbing his eyes slightly as if the tiredness would disappear if he physically rubbed it out. 

“Yeah,” Jisung replied and took a huge chug of the coffee. He contemplated which lie he should tell the blond, and the words sprung naturally out of his mouth. “I couldn’t sleep,” he began, Felix was eying him carefully putting his observation skills to use. “I thought Chan would be back today.” Which wasn’t _technically_ a lie, but Jisung had a hunch that Chan’s return would be delayed. Not only, because it usually was, but Chan was clearing out a werewolf nest by himself in Michigan and since he was completely by himself thing always seemed to take a longer time. Not to mention the trip back to New York City would take at least a day. If Chan was lucky, the ministry would grant him the use of portals, but Chan didn’t have a magician with him to create one on his side, which meant they would need to make one for Chan here. It seemed unlikely because the ministry would spend its resources on locating Chan and then creating a portal for him. Chan wasn’t important enough. He was important, important enough to get these big missions and leading their small headquarter. However, unless the ministry needed Chan right this instance, he doubted they would retrieve him with a portal.

Something, a hunch, told Jisung that the ministry would be too busy with the murders Felix had stumbled upon to care whether or not that a shadowhunter returned one or two days later. The fact that a member of the ministry had shown up yesterday, after the first murder – at least for what Jisung and Felix knew – told Jisung that this was a priority in the ministry. If Felix were to be believed – and he was – there had been two murders this night, which meant they’d be back. There was something about these murders that neither Felix nor the ministry was telling Jisung. However, Jisung wasn’t too concerned about it – Felix was more than capable of handling it. Jisung had to remind himself that he wasn’t actually that interested in chasing the killer, and more in knowing what it was about. Jisung was curious, but he didn’t want the case himself.

“Yeah, he might return during the day, I think it would be a bit early of Chan to return now unless he finished early, but it’s an entire nest,” Felix paused to think a bit before he continued, “I think he might even be a bit late.” Jisung knew everything Felix told him, having come up with the same conclusions himself, but he just nodded to Felix, before his attention was returned to the coffee cup. Felix turned around and headed for the fridge, Jisung could hear the sound of the fridge door opening and closing, and Jisung assumed Felix went straight for the orange juice. When Jisung’s brown eyes looked at Felix he saw the younger boy by a day chugging the last bottle of orange juice. Felix really should stop doing that, because the cashier in their local store was starting to give Jisung weird looks whenever he bought orange juice. The poor cashier must believe Jisung survived on the drink.

First, it had been funny, and then kind of tragic when the cashier asked Jisung if his girlfriend was pregnant and had serious cravings. But now it was just embarrassing, the cashier probably thought he had a problem. The cashier had even voiced his opinion and told Jisung that there were better things to mix alcohol with than orange juice. Felix went through at least four bottles on a weekly average, more if he had missions. 

Jisung had tried to get Felix to buy his own juice, but it hadn’t been very successful. They all were in charge of different chores, Jisung was in charge of shopping which for the most part was fine except for the orange juice. However, when he’d brought it up to Felix, Felix had retorted that then Jisung would have to wash his own clothes. Chan had suggested that he bought the juice in different places, but Jisung just wasn’t about to hit five stores all around New York just to get some fucking juice. 

“Man, can’t you switch the juice up a bit, what’s wrong with apple juice, or mango juice? There’s literally nothing wrong with mango juice, or what about _everything that isn’t orange juice_?” Jisung complained though he knew it was pointless. If Felix had been willing to budge, he’d done so long time ago.

“Orange juice just hits different,” Felix replied and shrugged slightly, drinking the last gulp before he tossed the cartoon in the bin.

“The cashier seriously thinks I have a problem, he’s starting to pack rehab advertisements in my bag or anonymous alcoholic helplines,” Jisung continued, and Felix had the audacity to laugh at him.

“You’re not even old enough to buy liquor,” Felix managed to say in-between laughs, and Jisung scoffed off him.

“Yeah, but he thinks that there’s just simply no way I actually drink it for the juice,” Jisung huffed, and made sure to send a hateful glare Felix’ way although it was mostly harmful. The little fucker still forced him to go shopping for orange juice, because Felix could simply not rest calmly if he knew there wasn’t orange juice in the headquarter.

“Okay, what about this,” Felix began, but Jisung could see the mischievous smile and knew it couldn’t warrant any good. “If you don’t get any blood on your clothes this week, I promise to mix my juice up a bit. Dried blood is a bitch to wash, deal?”

Jisung knew that even if he agreed to it, he wouldn’t be able to keep his end of the deal. That was exactly the reason why Felix suggested it too. He knew how competitive Jisung could be, and he knew that he would be able to do it with their line of work. “Sure deal,” Jisung agreed, knowing he would lose.

A comfortable silence hung over them as Felix checked his phone for his daily notifications while Jisung finished his coffee and contemplated if he should get a new one or not. He was very much in need of one, but he wondered if the coffee would go to waste seeing as he was pretty sure a representant from the ministry would show up soon. Jisung had hardly finished the thought when a blue portal appeared in their small kitchen and a man stepped out of it. Felix seemed slightly taken back, not because he hadn’t experienced it before, but he hadn’t expected it. Besides, Felix hadn’t been there yesterday to experience a portal opening in the library for a representant to step out.

This time the representant was a woman. She was tall and dressed in a black suit. Her dark brown hair was in a ponytail and her face looked stern. Jisung could see she was Latin-American of some sort but couldn’t pinpoint the exact country. She eyed them carefully before she took a few cautious steps forwards, her heels clicked against the floor.

“Man, can’t you guys just knock? We have a perfectly fine front door for a reason,” Jisung mumbled, but he wasn’t quite sure if the woman heard him or not. He’d mentioned _yesterday_ that they weren’t a fan of portals randomly opening in their headquarter, but apparently, they hadn’t got the memo.

“Han Jisung and Lee Felix, I presume,” her brown eyes were studying them, and Jisung recognized the look. Having seen it a dozen times on Felix, she was observing them.

“Yes, and to what do we owe this _pleasure_?” Jisung asked. Remaining polite, but making it known that her presence wasn’t really wanted. Felix was doing a good enough job by himself though, he was glaring daggers at her as if she had poured his orange juice down the drain. 

“I’m Naomi, I represent the ministry of magic,” she stretched out her hand towards Felix, but Felix just stared at her hand as if it was an alien custom he didn’t understand. “Very well. I have matters to discuss with both of you,” she glanced around the room and then locked eyes with Jisung. “Do you have somewhere we could sit, perhaps?”

Felix made no motion to move, but that didn’t surprise Jisung, Felix was hostile towards all members of the ministry after his small fiasco. Jisung got up from where he was seated and gestured the two of them to follow him. He didn’t want her prying eyes in the library, since Jisung usually used it as an office, so he led her into the living room towards a couch area. Naomi was quick to occupy the chair, so, Felix and Jisung ended up sharing the sofa.

“Mister Lee, you reported in two murders yesterday evening, and one murder the night before that, am I correct?” Naomi looked at Felix before her gaze averted to a notebook, and she scribbled notes. Jisung didn’t know where she’d been hiding that – but didn’t really care about either.

“Yes, but as you may know,” Felix began, more formal than usual, “a … colleague of yours already have asked me these questions,” Felix told her, a sad attempt to escape the interrogation. Naomi didn’t seem to budge.

“What can you tell me of the victims?”

A loud sigh escaped Felix, “I’m sure you did an autopsy, that can tell you more than I can.” Jisung wanted to nudge Felix and send him a look but he refrained from doing so.

“Please answer the question.”

“They all seem to have large holes in them, but they wary in both size and place, the first had two holes, but the second and the third victim both had one. I’m not quite sure if the holes are the death cause, seeing as all have marks of restriction, and clearly have been fighting. But you already know this,” Felix sighed.  
“And what can you tell me about the circumstances,” she intrigued. 

“Look, I’m just on night patrol, I could hardly say-…” Felix tried, but Naomi interrupted him.

Her brown eyes bore into Felix’, “but you’re not 'just on night patrol’, are you mister Lee? I’ve read your case file, so you can cut the act and get straight to the point.” Her eyes lingered slightly on Felix before she was back to her notes. “What can you tell me about the circumstances?”

In the corner of Jisung’s eye, he could see Felix chewing on his bottom lip, a sign he was thinking. Felix should really thank the gods or whatever that it was Naomi that interrogated him and not Jisung. Jisung could read Felix like an open book. Right now, the blond was thinking about what to say without revealing too much. It seemed that Felix withheld information on purpose. The more impulsive side of Felix recognized it to be a more high-level mission than the current rank he was on, and by withholding information, the likeliness of getting the mission was higher. Maybe the ministry would dismiss the case completely, and Felix could swipe and save the day – as a nice reward Felix’ old position would be restored. Jisung couldn’t quite blame Felix for thinking like that – night patrols sucked – but he would scold Felix later for putting himself in danger like that.

“They all seem to be members of the magical society, serving the same role and are killed during the night. I’m not sure what killed them,” Felix’ lip twitched slightly, and Jisung knew he was lying, “but it seems like demon.” Felix _knew_ it was a demon, but he didn’t want to tell the ministry that, although they’d probably jumped to the same conclusion. It seemed most likely, even an amateur’s first guess would be demon. However, estimating and knowing for sure were two quite different things.

Naomi seemed to write something down, but Jisung was pretty sure she knew everything Felix had already told her. After all, they were basic observations. She was merely testing his skillset to see if she deemed him smart enough to get assigned the mission. To Jisung, it seemed like the case disinterested her, and that she wouldn’t assign something as ‘unimportant’ to the higher-ranked hunters. She asked Felix several questions, but every answer seemed to bore her even more, she finished with a nod and a click of her pen.

“Very well, mister Lee. The ministry has asked me to assign you the mission, hunt the killer for us, and report back to us. Are we clear?” Her gaze never left Felix’ as he nodded, “good. Someone else will take over your patrol as you work for us. See this as a chance to redeem yourself, so please don’t screw up your only chance.” Felix nodded again, and she smirked creepily. “You’re dismissed.” Felix got up from the couch and moved away, but lingered in the room, not quite sure what to do with himself. “If I were you,” Naomi continued, “I would start to track the killer, the clues are already running cold, eh? And please do be quick, your effectiveness will be _rewarded_ ,” her lips curled up into a smile, and Jisung could Felix’ mask slip ever so little. With that, the blond was out the door.

“Now, mister Han I have quite the exciting news for you,” the smile on her face didn’t seem to fall, but Jisung wasn’t quite sure if he liked it or not. It could hardly warrant any good, although Jisung knew he wasn’t in trouble or anything – he knew that the ministry didn’t barge into one’s HQ’s to discuss the weather.

“There seem to be anew uneasiness among the shadow creatures. More than normal, it’s like someone is creating a ruckus, in hope of a riot. We can’t seem to trace it back to original source, but a previous informant has confirmed that there’s one man, er … creature – we’re still not sure of its breed, behind the operation. However, our informant has gone … missing,” Naomi’s weird pause could only mean the person was presumed dead. “Find our informant will you,” the fact that she didn’t precise his state or well-being only confirmed Jisung’s theories, “and find the one causing this riot. The streets have been uneasy lately, and the last thing our magical society needs right now is to be overthrown.” The Latin woman paused, waiting for a reaction, but Jisung didn’t give off a satisfactory one. “in this case file,” she handed a small case file to him, “you will find everything we have on the suspect. Please don’t hesitate to make contact if you’re in need of resources. Treat it as a top priority.”

Her eyes met Jisung’s, “and, of course, this is highly confidential. I will leave you to it and got up from the chair. It didn’t take long before a blue portal opened in their living room, and Naomi stepped into it. She was gone with the portal before Jisung could ask why he of all people were assigned a mission like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, I'm back, and it didn't take forever to update for once. Thanks for the lovely comments it really inspires me to write <3 I hope you liked this chapter, which was actually longer this time! And the plot is thickening, idek if y'all are here for Minsung or Changlix or both, but yeehaw our first Jisung POV. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, I hope to be back soon enough!


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